To relieve the shortage of Commission courtrooms, which has hampered the scheduling of evidentiary hearings in recent years as the caseload has grown and the ALJ corps has expanded, the Commission acquired additional space in its building and completed construction of a third courtroom in the first quarter of FY 2013. Hearings are now being held in this new courtroom, which is specially equipped to handle the complex cases that account for much of the intellectual property-based investigation docket.

In recent years, a relatively high number of intellectual property-based investigations have resulted in settlements, which reduces the number of inves­tigations in which the Commission makes final determinations. Thus, the number of final determinations is most relevant to understand the resource requirements for subsequent litigation. In FY 2010, there were 25 final determinations and 14 of those determinations were appealed. In FY 2011, there were 20 final determinations and 9 of those determinations were appealed. In FY 2012, there were 21 final determinations and 17 of those determinations were appealed. Based on an average for the three most recent fiscal years, the appeal rate for intellectual property-based investigations was 61 percent. At the close of FY 2012, there were 14 Commission intellectual property-based litigation matters pending. This litigation translates into a significant portion of OGC employee resources.

For FY 2013 and FY 2014, the Commission projects the number of new appeals challenging the Commission’s intellectual property-based determinations will be at continued high levels similar to recent trends, reflecting the historical rate of appeals and the projected filings.

http://usitc.gov/press_room/documents/FY2014CongressionalBudgetJustification.pdf